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‘Misappropriated’ booze, termination of whistleblower among allegations against B.C. Legislature’s top officers

VANCOUVER—Taxpayers on the hook for scotch, brooches, engraved watches and trinket boxes. “Flagrant overspending on luxurious trips overseas.” Thousands of public dollars on booze and gear “misappropriated” from the B.C. legislature. “Inappropriate payouts.” A $1,100 airport suitcase purchased in Hong Kong. The firing of a “whistleblower” who said a BC Liberal MLA ordered him to “submit improper expense claims.”

This is just a sample of the allegations Speaker Darryl Plecas said sparked his shocking public suspension of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia’s two highest-paid officers last November.

House Speaker Darryl Plecas looks over documents as he awaits legal opinions during the Legislative Assembly Management Committee meeting in the Douglas Fir room at Legislature in Victoria, B.C., on Monday. (CHAD HIPOLITO / The Canadian Press)

On Monday afternoon, the all-party Legislative Assembly Management Committee voted that the suspended clerk, Craig James, and Sergeant-at-Arms Gary Lenz have until Feb. 1 to formally respond to the accusations — after telling media last month they’d never been informed of them.

The pair has said they did nothing wrong. Neither has been charged with any crime, and none of the allegations in the report have been tested in court.

“There will be a response at some point,” their spokesperson Ross Sullivan told StarMetro by phone, “but I think, as you can guess, with a big document like that it will be a while before there is a response.”

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According to Plecas’ 76-page report, released by unanimous committee vote, the Speaker “personally observed … activities which made (him) deeply uncomfortable with the conduct of the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly and the Sergeant-at-Arms.”

He alleges he witnessed “specific conduct” by the pair and issues in the overall “functioning and culture” of the building “as a workplace.”

Plecas alleges “flagrant overspending” on overseas voyages with “questionable business rationales.” Additionally, he alleged “inappropriate payouts of cash in lieu of vacation, which appear to total in the hundreds of thousands of dollars,” as well as “instances where thousands of dollars of alcohol and equipment may have been misappropriated from the Legislative Assembly.”

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The accusations ranged from the brazen to the bizarre.

An example of the brazen was taxpayer-funded taxi travel allegedly being double-billed as driving mileage.

As for bizarre, Plecas said James and Lenz made overseas gift-shop purchases including taxpayer-expensed scotch and stationary souvenirs from the U.K. Parliament; in Scotland’s Parliament gift-shop, it was “cufflinks, a women’s brooch, a trinket box, a tie and a scarf.”

Plecas was with James on the British Isles junket in late 2017. He said James told him at the time the items were “a gift for his wife.”

“I have since learned that all of those items were expensed to the Legislative Assembly, under the heading of ‘miscellaneous uniform items,’” wrote Plecas.

And in one anecdote, Plecas claimed he told James he wouldn’t expense a suit the Speaker bought because as a public figure he would “be scrutinized by members of the Opposition.” The clerk allegedly replied that he “shouldn’t worry” because he had “so much dirt on the Liberals.”

“I don’t know what he was talking about,” Plecas said, “but it seemed an unusual comment.”

Early Monday afternoon, committee members debated for several hours in secret about whether to go public but voted unanimously to release Plecas’ dossier.

The committee also voted unanimously to ask another province’s auditor general to scrutinize the legislature’s books and release another report publicly.

Following votes to release the report and have an outside auditor step in, MLAs voted as one for BC Liberal opposition House leader Mary Polak’s motion that “all house leaders consider the serious allegations raised in the written report by the Speaker” and that they seek “response from the clerk and sergeant-at-arms by Feb. 1.”

The report answers months of confusion and intrigue around why the legislature’s two top officials were publicly suspended and escorted away by police at the direction of Plecas.

Journalists had been asked to leave the committee room, and the livestream was shuttered, while legislators debated the merits of going public.

“My strong view is that the entire 76-page report be made public,” Plecas told members of the committee before it went in-camera, “and perhaps including the five-inch binder of associated evidence from that report.”

Polak argued unsuccessfully against making Monday’s meeting in-camera at all, arguing they would have to eventually account for what happened to the public and that Plecas’ legal advice could be publicized without endangering the investigation itself.

“The legal opinion is about whether or not we can appropriately investigate … the financial dealings of the legislature at the same time as there is an ongoing investigation,” Polak told committee members shortly before proceedings became secret.

Last December, Plecas called for a “full forensic audit” of the two staffers’ offices, promising: “If the outcome of those audits did not outrage the public, did not outrage taxpayers, did not make them throw up, I will resign as Speaker.”

The RCMP has been investigating unspecified criminal allegations since late September and unusually appointed not one but two special prosecutors to oversee the probe to ensure it is free from influence or interference.

With the unanimous, bipartisan support of all MLAs — who were not informed of any details beyond the RCMP investigation — Plecas suspended James, who oversaw the legislature’s $70-million budget and operations, and Lenz, head of security.

In November, StarMetro revealed that Auditor General Carol Bellringer, British Columbia’s government-spending watchdog, had refused to sign off on her usual statement that the provincial legislature’s books appear accurate, even though she had already reviewed them.

James, who was appointed clerk for life in 2011, had told reporters he should be allowed to return to work. He said his budget includes the 125-year-old building’s maintenance and operations, security, landscaping, a library as well as MLAs’ constituency offices.

James is the highest-paid legislature clerk in Canada, earning nearly $350,000 a year — nearly 45 per cent more than the Ontario legislature clerk’s roughly $241,000 income. The federal House of Commons clerk earns somewhere between $207,000 to $243,000; their Quebec national assembly counterpart earns at least $238,000.

According to Plecas’ report, James’ salary was far above even B.C.’s highest judge, the chief justice, and almost double Premier John Horgan’s.

Members of the BC Liberal opposition have questioned Plecas’ role in the investigations; former B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal was then hired as his “special adviser.” They have demanded all information on the matter be released publicly and that Plecas be held accountable for his handling of the file.

With files from Jeremy Nuttall

David P. Ball is a Vancouver-based reporter covering democracy and politics. Follow him on Twitter: @davidpball

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